Political Science Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-5-2012
Volume
367
Issue
1589
Journal
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London – Biological Sciences
First Page
640
URL with Digital Object Identifier
https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frstb.2011.0268
Last Page
649
Abstract
We report evidence that individual-level variation in people's physiological and attentional responses to aversive and appetitive stimuli are correlated with broad political orientations. Specifically, we find that greater orientation to aversive stimuli tends to be associated with right-of-centre and greater orientation to appetitive (pleasing) stimuli with left-of-centre political inclinations. These findings are consistent with recent evidence that political views are connected to physiological predispositions but are unique in incorporating findings on variation in directed attention that make it possible to understand additional aspects of the link between the physiological and the political.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Notes
Dodd, Michael, Amanda (Friesen) Balzer, Carly M. Jacobs, Michael W. Gruszczynski, Kevin B. Smith, and John R. Hibbing. March 5, 2012. “The Political Left Rolls with the Good; The Political Right Confronts the Bad: Physiology and Cognition in Politics.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London – Biological Sciences 1589. 640-649.